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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

My Despicable Three

It’s costume time again and I am beyond thrilled that the gremlins agreed to a theme again this year. Last year I really had to sell the idea of dressing as a group (although the final choice of trio was brought to a kids’ vote). This year, there was barely any discussion. We walked out of the theater after seeing Despicable Me 2 and we were all on a giggling high. I said, “It would be fun to do Despicable Me costumes for Halloween,” and Ben & Grace’s faces lit up! (Noah doesn’t really care what he wears. Like Seinfeld, he will wear whatever he has to wear to get the candy.)

Thanks to summer movie fun, these costumes have been in the works since July. In fact, I purposefully bought cheese balls for Ben’s birthday party so that I could save the big plastic jug and turn it into a minion head. I thought I was so ahead of the game. Then I went and waited until the last minute to get any of the actual costume making done (surprise, surprise). I sewed my last stitches this afternoon… just in time to hand them over to B, G, & N and have a little photo shoot when they came home from school. There were some frustrating parts, but I am mostly pleased with how they all turned out. I am 100% pleased that the kids are excited to wear them!

Now on to the nitty gritty of costume making… these photos were my inspiration:

I made Noah’s costume first, since it was the most involved. I referenced this tutorial and tweaked things as I went. I cut down the container and stuffed some batting inside the head to make it fit better. I drew the mouth where Noah’s head landed and cut that out.

I wrapped more batting around the outside before covering the entire thing in yellow fabric. (My mom picked up two plain yellow shirts from a screen printing shop. I used one as Noah’s top and the extra one to cover the head.) The goggles are made from wide black elastic, two canning jar lids spray painted silver, and eyes that I found online and printed. The hair is made from pipe cleaners. The teeth are white foam that I duct taped to the inside of the head. For the overalls, I looked around to try to find some cheap ones online, but I kept striking out. (I needed overalls for both Noah & Gracie). Then I remembered that I had a ton of heavy blue fabric left over from a previous project. I bought a pattern at a 99¢ sale (McCall’s 6592), grabbed some buttons when I was in Hancock’s, and ta-da… two pairs of overalls for $3.50.

The finishing pieces of N’s Minion costume were black gloves (Wal-mart) and black boots (Ben’s old rain boots covered in black duct tape). I do not think he could be any cuter. My favorite part? He calls himself a "BeeDo BeeDo”.

Little Agnes was up next. I made G & N’s overalls at the same time, so that was done. The only difference is Gracie’s have red buttons, a plain front, and I cuffed the pants up higher the way Agnes’s are.

Gracie’s t-shirt is from Wal-mart. (It was in the little boy’s section and had long gray sleeves that I just cut out. Her yellow socks are also from Wally World, and her red scrunchy may have been mine back in the day. (Children of the 80’s… unite!) The biggest challenge of the Agnes costume was the hair. I feel like the wig is a complete train wreck (don’t look too close) but it will have to do. I found it at Jo-Ann's for a few bucks. Have you ever tried to put a cheap wig of hair up into a pony tail (and have it stay)? Well, good luck to you. It was/is a mess. I stitched a toilet paper tube wrapped in black paper to the scalp of the wig and then tied black string around the hair all the way up to make it stand up (something Gracie specifically requested.) I’m fairly certain it will not survive the rigors of trick-or-treating/Fall carnival going… but at least I got a picture of her stand up hair. :)

Grace’s favorite part of the costume is the stuffed unicorn. She gladly shouts, in her best Agnes voice, “It’s so fluffy I’m gonna die!”

Ben’s costume was last and it was definitely the most simple. The black knit pants and oversized sweatshirt came from… you guessed it… Wal-mart. (At this point I think I deserve some sort of compensation for typing “Wal-mart” so many times in one post). I cut the ribbing off the sleeves and bottom of the sweatshirt and hemmed them to make them look more like Gru’s jacket. I cut the front of the sweat shirt right up the middle and attached an oversized silver zipper. The scarf is made from gray and black fleece and is just pieced together. His bald cap was the hardest thing to track down because I needed it in a child size. I finally ended up finding a kid’s “Lex Luthor Bald Cap“ online. He is wearing his homemade football pads (from two years ago) under his shirt.

I think Ben makes a handsome Gru… and he certainly has some Gru-like moves. :)

What do you when the costumes are done and everyone is happy? Have a Despicable Dance Party!

I had to come over here from the Make it and Love it flickr group. You rock hard. We walked out of Despicable Me too with the same intentions (I have a boy and two girls) but when October rolled around, there was no such luck. Great job!